Jenny's Reviews

If you think of salads as a side dish or a summer-only option, Big Salads will change your mind in a big way. Lettuce is the least interesting ingredient in these salads and the dressings are to die for. Divided into the four seasons of the year, this book of meals in the form of extraordinary salads will inspire vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores to think differently about big salads all year long. - Jenny

If decluttering and getting organized keeps making your to-do list and never getting done, these books could be the inspiration you need to move from dreaming to doing. We know and love Gretchen Rubin for her book with the cheery title The Happiness Project, and she’s hooked us again with this one: Outer Order, Inner Calm. Ahhhh, already the invitation is irresistible. Open this book to any page and you’ll get a bite-size tip about how to start. She’s kind, practical, reasonable, and encouraging.

If you’re a “before and after” picture junkie like I am, The Home Edit by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin will appeal to your visually pleasing style. This book is broken into three simple sections: How to edit the contents of each area, how to set up the organization, and how to maintain the new systems. Shearer and Teplin assure you that if they can do it, you can do it. Seeing page after page of colorful “after” pictures with everything color coded, containers galore, and fancy folding is almost as good as seeing it happen in your own home. Whether you are aiming for a version of minimalism or just need that final push to clean some closets and make life simpler, these two books will get you started and see you through. - Jenny

Reading this book put flesh and bones and heart and layers to this merry-go-round of world issues and the people who are along for the ride. Sarah Blake has brought together history and story in a way that made me love people who were easy to hate and question traditions that seemed lovely. We see the lives of three generations of one family unfold and grow in their time, in their surroundings, and in the changing world around them. World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, the ‘60s and ‘70s—what can one family maintain and what does it cost them? What do we all try to maintain and why? - Jenny

How does she do it? How does Anne Lamott capture the tension of mystery and truth in a way that makes you want to follow her anywhere and believe everything? If you opened this book to any random page you’d find something you’d feel compelled to read aloud to the stranger at the next table. Her familiar writing style spreads a blanket in the sun, lays out trinkets for you to consider, then gathers up the corners, ties it to a stick, sets it on your shoulder, and nudges you to walk on with hope. -Jenny

Give me all the fruits! Canning has been a tradition and a legacy in my family; the recipes, the rituals and the rules are all things I treasure. This new book is one I will gladly splatter with sugared fruits and scalding water. I have pages earmarked for the earliest strawberries all the way through till the end of summer. No peach will escape my plans for the Peach-Lime Salsa. The beautiful photography, the creative recipes (arranged by season), and the wealth of information are enough to forgive the publishers for not including tasting samples. - Jenny

Told in pieces of the past, present, and future, The History of Bees is is a beautifully written story about our relationships with each other and with the world we share. I will never again see a bee and have it not remind me of our responsibility to respect the balance of power in nature. Lunde’s novel has illuminated the path of the bees and in turn has given us a beacon of hope for our future. - Jenny

Reading this book was like listening to a beautiful, heartbreaking piece of music. Prepare yourself for a full sensory experience as Jesmyn Ward pulls you into the lives of 13-year-old JoJo and his family in rural Mississippi. The reality of their struggle is palpable. This is a story of contradictions; we hit when we mean to hug, the hurts in our past have a place in our healing, a daughter’s best moment in her life is when she is present for her mother’s death. Despite the profound sadness, the last pages leave you with a lyrical sense of hope. - Jenny

This is the book that keeps resurfacing in my mind and in my conversations. I can’t stop talking about it! My personal understanding of “belonging” and my cultural understanding of “belonging” have been given a new language and a new mission. I think this shift in thinking has unlimited potential and such hope for better conversations with friends and foes, alike. - Jenny

This book reads like an old black and white movie. Think Bogart and Bacall. It’s everything you want in a smart, summer, beach read; tragedy, intrigue, forbidden romance, and dramatic endings. Each chapter keeps you rooting for Grace, cheering her on as she discovers who she is, what she wants, and how strong she really is. - Jenny

If you’ve ever struggled with who you thought you were in contrast to who life shows you to be, you will appreciate the stories of these three women. Set against the harsh and resilient sub-Saharan African landscape, Adrienne Benson uses this appropriate backdrop to illustrate the resiliency and courage of these women as they wrestle with cultural expectations, motherhood desires and disappointments, and the way we can use relationships to speak truth back to ourselves. - Jenny